Macon-Mercer Symphony to debut Christopher Schmitz’s ‘Violin Concerto’ featuring violinist Amy Schwartz Moretti

The Macon-Mercer Symphony Orchestra will highlight Macon composer Christopher Schmitz’s “Violin Concerto” on Monday in the second of its four concerts for the 2024-25 season.

Schmitz is professor of music theory and composition at Mercer University’s Townsend School of Music and he wrote the piece specifically for internationally acclaimed violinist Amy Schwartz Moretti who is director of Mercer’s Robert McDuffie Center for Strings.

Moretti will perform the piece Monday with the MMSO.

The concerto is in three parts, each titled Dark, Warm and Electric. 

“Like so many others, I’ve always been impressed with Amy’s wide range of expression on violin,” Schmitz said. “Her extreme technical virtuosity, emotion-filled and lyrical playing is always present whether with the well-known Ehnes Quartet, her solo performances or in guest roles with symphonies around the world. I wanted to create a vehicle that would showcase that in a variety of moods. I didn’t name the movements until deep in the process of writing and decided they were more fitting than the boring, classical naming convention of using tempo designations. I think they do a better job of inviting listeners into the textural and emotional context of the piece which Amy brings out so beautifully.”

In September of 2023, Moretti, Schmitz and others traveled to the U.K. to record the “Violin Concerto” with the London Symphony Orchestra along with his Symphony No. 1 which also features Moretti. It was released in May by PARMA Recordings on their Navona Records label and placed on all the usual streaming services. Following its release, Schmitz said the recording had gotten a lot of attention on social media, with a PARMA posting surpassing 130,000 views just a month or two after its release.

“Obviously, it was an incredible experience to work with the London Symphony in their recording space,” Schmitz said.

Among those traveling to make the recording was Moretti’s husband, drummer/percussionist Steve Moretti, who is co-founder of Macon Pops and who served as co-producer on the album. Also along were two Middle Georgia high school and middle school music students who won the opportunity to go and observe the effort through an essay contest of sorts. They were Kaleigh Baker and Keaton Money. At the time, Baker was an eighth grader at Warner Robins’ Northside Middle School and Money a senior at Central High School.

Only the “Violin Concerto” will be performed Monday, but both Schmitz and Moretti said they anticipate a local performance of Symphony No. 1 in the future.

While Schmitz speaks highly of Moretti, Moretti in turn said she appreciates the quality and emotion present in Schmitz’s work.

“I’m just so glad he wrote this and entrusted me with his music,” she told me following a performance last week of Mercer’s Fabian (Chamber) Concert Series which she curates. The series brings some of the world’s best chamber musicians to Macon audiences, including annual performances by members of the Ehnes Quartet.

Students of the McDuffie Center are regularly selected to take the stage playing alongside the proven, world-class musicians.

Guest conductor for Monday’s concert is Thomas Wilkins. Among other roles and connections to major symphonies, Wilkins is principal conductor of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, music director laureate of the Omaha Symphony Orchestra and principal guest conductor of the Virginia Symphony. He has taught at North Park University, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and Virginia Commonwealth University and is now professor of music in orchestral conducting at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.

After his debut year as family and youth concert conductor of the Boston Symphony, he was named among the “Best People and Ideas of 2011” by the Boston Globe.  In 2018, he received the Leonard Bernstein Lifetime Achievement Award from the Longy School of Music. 

He was recipient of the League of American Orchestras’ Golden Baton Award in 2022.

Brahms’ masterpiece, Symphony No. 2 in D Major, will also be performed as part of the evening’s program.

But at the forefront is Moretti’s playing of Schmitz’s composition.

“It’s very special to get to present the piece to Macon,” Schmitz said. “And especially to do it with the Macon-Mercer Symphony which has been such a fruitful collaboration between McDuffie strings students and members of the Atlanta Symphony who make up the remainder of the symphony.”

Schmitz said this isn’t the first time he’s arranged for the MMSO. In one of its earliest concerts, he did the orchestral arrangements for music written and performed by participants of the Otis Redding Foundation music camp.

Schmitz said he continues to compose in two main areas: artistic work, like the “Violin Concerto” and Symphony No. 1, and educational work which is aimed at creating exercises or teaching certain principles and techniques.

Of course, he said his primary work is that of a teacher-professor and fulfilling those duties. In a normal week, he said he typically sets aside time on two days to work on compositions. And he finds Mercer and Macon an ideal spot to do it all.

“It’s my 12th year at Mercer and I feel there’s still so much left for me to accomplish here,” he said. “I feel grateful for all the opportunities to serve students and work with colleagues. It’s a very supportive atmosphere. It’s funny, it’s my 12th year but I don’t feel like I’ve been here very long at all.”

MMSO performances are at the Piedmont Grand Opera House and begin at 7:30 p.m. For those without season subscriptions, single tickets range from $25 to $35 with students offered free admission with valid ID.

For ticketing and concert information, go to www.thegrandmacon.com. For details on the McDuffie Center and more on the Townsend School of Music, including information on Schmitz, go to mcduffie.mercer.edu and music.mercer.edu.

Contact writer Michael W. Pannell at mwpannell@gmail.com. Find him on Instagram at michael_w_pannell.